I'm a black ex-cop, and this is the real truth about race and policing

It's not easy to act correctly in insane situations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment. Plus other experiments show that most of us can easily be manipulated into doing horrific things. These are not necessarily rotten police officers. It may be a rotten system.

One nice insight of the post was that modifying the behavior of the few at the top of the hierarchy can effect widespread change. And somehow, we've got to find a way to stop brutalizing and incarcerating so many people.

The more Reddit Hudsons there are, the faster we'll get there.

Yeah, so?

It's not about what this officer is, it's about what happens out there.

Being white poor (and especially homeless) is not very different from being black, from the "institutional racism" standpoint. But even in that case, whites are usually spared more than blacks, including in the courts. The incarceration rates speak for themselves.

That said, police over-reaching authority and institutional impunity goes a long way even for middle class clean cut white families. If you have a $2000 suit and a Tesla, on the other hand, not so much.

Think of a typical corporation.

Some people are toxic (the 15% bad).

Some people will try to do the right thing no matter what (the 15% good). But in a typical corporation, the toxic people will usually eliminate the people who can see through them.

The vast majority will do whatever is rewarded. When the average person sees that toxic behavior gets raises and promotions, that's what they'll emulate.

The problem with our society is that the bad 15% are in charge and the good 15% have no power. (Although I would estimate it closer to 5%/90%/5% instead of 15%/70%/15%.)

It becomes an (unstable?) equilibrium, when all the leaders are toxic, and the good people are locked out of making important decisions. This leads to myths like "only toxic people make good leaders", because anyone non-toxic gets weeded out by the toxic people.